Customer Reviews

Tarantula

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Tarantula is in the stream-of-consciousness style of Dylan's liner notes to Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home. The publisher did our beloved author a great disservice in labeling these writings "Poems." These short pieces - interspersed with pseudo-missives - are literally unbridled prose, brimming with wit, sarcasm and absurdities. Only Dylan can say for sure what they're all about. A poet is not necessarily one who writes rhyming verse, but formlessness is not poetry either. To call Tarantula "poetry" is to turn a blind eye to Dylan's assault on traditional prose narrative forms. That said, I think Tarantula is a great book to have on the shelf, but it's not easy or especially rewarding reading unless one is primarily interested in the author. Because it's Dylan's only book (aside from published lyrics), it's a rather important book. Likewise, Dylan admirers should see D.A. Pennebaker's classic mid-60s Dylan documentary, "Don't Look Back."

He plays with the words like a hurricane, he is better here than in some records. It is not beat poetry, it is Dylan's own style.

I'm 17 and I've listened to Dylan for about 5 years. Over this period of time I've grown more and more impressed with Dylan's poetic genius. His songs are undoubtedely his claim to fame but I feel that "Tarantula" is the key to understanding his writing. "Tarantula" proves that Dylan was and still is a modern blend of Whitman, Rimbaud, Genet, Ginsberg, Guthrie, and Picasso. "Tarantula's" cut up style has been called "a muddled stream of self conciousness" but I beg to differ. If there has been any writer in our time that has captured the language of our times and helped us examine the world we live in I think it is Dylan. I hope he eventually receives the Nobel Prize for literature that he truly deserves. He is living proof that poetry can touch "the masses", he defies the narrow definition of a poet that ivory tower intellectuals have forced on people for years. The language of Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, albums that changed the way people perceived songs, reaches new heights in "Tarantula".

Dylanophiles have long tired of (..) literary critics saying that Dylan is "not really a poet; this book does something to put the lie to the accusation. It IS poetry, though not in the "conventional" sense. The majority of the book is written in a style of prose poem/poem/prose poem (repeating the cycle for however long the poem is), and then closing the piece with a written letter signed by some character from Dylan's imagination. As you may have surmised, the prose poems are of the type that Dylan wrote for the linear notes to Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. And yes, the poems are in the style of the poems that Dylan wrote for The Times They Are A-Changin' and Another Side. Precious little of it is literal; it is almost wholly written in the rambling, seeming stream-of-consciousness style that Dylan introduced in the aforementioned prose poems. He was highly into writing allegerical fables at that time, and this book abounds in them. Dylan fans will certainly enjoy this book a lot. It gives a peak into his creativity and writing process like nothing else really does. This is Dylan unpolished, not buried beneath the stream of re-writes that produced such masterpieces as "Visions of Johanna." There are references to many of his songs and lyrics within the poetry - whether this came from those, or vice versa, is anyone's guess, but it's a fascinating glimpse into Dylan in any case. You can get something out of these poems. They are fun to read, and have a quick, rolling meter and cadence that all of Dylan's poetic works seem to have, and this makes for interesting and thought-provoking seat-of-the-pants reading. Dylan fans will revel in it. Probably, those who are not already taken with the author will not be converted by this book. This book is actually a less-than-stellar book in the eyes of many (admittedly, by Dylan himself, who held off publishing it for 5 years), and, though interesting and thought-provoking, it is a very ornate and abstract work, without also offering the insights into life that his lyrics have always offered. So the merits of this book for those who are not already Dylan fans is questionable. On the other hand, it is certainly essential for Dylanophiles, and it certainly is a further contribution from Dylan to the field of poetry, and a more legitimate one in the eyes of many. Here's hoping that it helps Bob win the Nobel Prize for Literature that he so geniunely and truly deserves. It is not a cultural opinion, but indeed a fact, that Dylan did more for poetry than anyone else in the 20th century - at least in the sense of bringing it to the masses. And he certainly re-defined popular music as we know it. This book is a further gem in his canon, and helps show a small part of the reason for why Dylan means so much to so many different people.

It's the best insight one can gain into the mind of a poetic genius. Biographies can explain in prose about what they think is going on with a person; They can even claim to be an expert. But, having listened to this poet's music, read his lyrics, and then have read this book, I have gained, I wont say a complete answer about Dylan, but, I feel where he is coming from, better. The book is very spontaneous and honest! If you want to know about someone, it's great to read something that gives you a hint as to how their mind actually operated. Dylan is Dylan and there will never be anyone to take his place. We can only be inspired by his thoughts, and this book is the most intelligent and interesting event, I have ever read!

Dylan tries too hard to create meaning out of nothing in Tarantula. Too often he attempts to create symbols with nothing to back them up. The book is clearly forced. The publishers should have allowed him not to publish it rather than force an embarassment onto the market. There was little or no coherence or meaning in each story, and less in the connection of all of the stories. Some nuts may say that this is a work of pure litereary genius, but I urge thos people to disregard the author and his reputaion as a genius and focus on the text. The reader must not assume that there is something to the words just because Dylan wrote them. Dylan should stick to writing song lyrics.

It's the best insight one can gain into the mind of a poetic genius. Biographies can explain in prose about what they think is going on with a person; They can even claim to be an expert. But, having listened to this poet's music, read his lyrics, and then have read this book, I have gained, I wont say a complete answer about Dylan, but, I feel where he is coming from, better. The book is very spontaneous and honest! If you want to know about someone, it's great to read something that gives you a hint as to how their mind actually operated. Dylan is Dylan and there will never be anyone to take his place. We can only be inspired by his thoughts, and this book is the most intelligent and interesting event, I have ever read!

You`ve more than probably heard the man`s music, and for sure you thought that was great. Most people would go as far as calling Dylan`s texts litterature. He`s even been mentioned several times as a fair Nobel Prize candidate. If they had one for music, he surely would have had it long time ago.

Well, Tarantula, initially expected to come out around 1967 (You can see him working on the typewriter in Pennebaker`s Don`t Look Back (London 1965).) was published in 1969. The book`s reception was, to put it gently, mixed. The publisher didn`t want it when they read the result, but the contract was signed, and the end of that was Tarantula in the book stores.

This book is a chaotic caleiodoscope of odd characters, taken out of an American pre-Vietnam social context. They are all blended into the ink of Dylan`s pen, which flows like the salty water near Cape Horn on a windy day.

You need patience to read this book; but if you have that and in addition you fancy the temperature of Bobby`s head; then this strange meal is yours.

I have been listening to Dylan since I was 16 and although that's only 3 years I am already lost for words as to describe his genius. Since discovering his writing in the sleeve notes to his earlier stuff I was amazed by his writing. Then, I found Tarantula. This adds a whole new dimension to his work as an artist and a poet. I am amazed at how he managed to keep his momentum to finsh the book considering that he was writing it during and after his non-stop touring of the mid 60's which ended, fortunately or unfortunately depending how you look at it, with his accident at Newport. The result is a bizarre use of metaphor and juxtaposition to convey his feelings at that time which pleased me and many others, even if Bob himself wasn't 100% happy with the finished article. Let's get one thing straight however - liking Dylan and appreciating Dylan are two very different things. If you think that Like A Rolling Stone is a classic because of the opening guitar riff then you like Dylan; if you think it's a classic because you understand the imagery in the song then you appreciate Dylan. This book is for the latter.

Walking down Desolation Row you will find the Insanity Factory. If you survive the Wipe Out Gang,you could find Dylan Boy, shot to death by an Edipo.What the hell happens?Who knows.Try to find out.